Sunday, July 01, 2012

K's Dal-Gosht -- meat cooked with lentils

The last weekend we went visiting a friend whom we have known since donkey's years or whatever years that makes sure that you can sleep in late at their home while the kids are running amock.

Perfect place to sit with a book and a cup of chai

Now we visit them often, taking on a journey of 3hrs ever few months for their house is a haven where I can rest my weary soul and be jealous of other people. But somehow we have never made it during the summer months for one reason or the other. So this year before making any other plan we had set aside this weekend, right at the start of summer for a visit to K, M and M's home.
They in turn had guaranteed a resort like retreat for relaxation.

Well, it was way above anything any resort could ever provide.

Other than the hours of adda and amazing good food that came one after another starting from luchi and ending in Thai taking a circuitous route through Ilish and Dal-Gosht in between, there was bird-watching right at their backyard.

Birds from glowing gold-finch to tiny hummingbirds, red cardinals to blue birds all flock their backyard. K and M have many bird feeders hung up and that is what attracts these tiny birds out of thin air. They clearly love all the bird watching and have different kinds of feeds depending on the birds' choice. The American Gold Finch apparently favor Thistle seeds. The hummingbirds prefer sugar water and love red colored feeders. The blue bird is omnivore and prefers insects in its diet. Pheww, picky they are.

I have never been with birds so close before unless we take into account my paternal grandparent's sprawling and old home where birds lived along with humans in a peaceful co-existence. Well by birds I mean mostly "House Sparrows".

They made their nests in the skylight---ghulghuli as we said, laid eggs and ate rice and fish curry off the dining table. It was not totally unnatural to find straws of hay in your charchari as the arduous male sparrow carried raw material to repair his nest. If it was not hay, it was twigs, or a piece of cane from the rocking chair. The male of the species were always flapping wings around the outer verandah appearing to be very busy in one home improvement project or the other.

The female sparrow lived a more relaxed life and I am sure took long naps because many a summer afternoon we would have to sweat out in the sticky heat unable to switch on the ceiling fan because a spoilt sparrow child had chosen that moment to fly across our bedroom in a game of tag. My Thama, who had otherwise accepted the birds as a legacy, would at times get exasperated with the mess they made and get one of those broomsticks with a long handle to shoo the birds away. She never threw away their nests or did anything that would permanently ban their return though. The birds therefore stayed in that house, being neither nurtured nor watched, but living a comfortable life and feasting on fish curry-rice.If I recall I harbored no special feeling towards them. Just like the cats who sat around our feet munching on fish head, or the crows on the banana tree who cawed so deep that it broke the silence of an otherwise sleepy afternoon, the sparrows belonged to that house as did we.

Now, after many years, I watched birds. By Choice. I took my tea and sat out there in the mornings watching those colorful birds, the sophisticated cousins of my once home's "house sparrow". But as is my norm, I did not take my camera along and was not able to capture good pics on the camera. Some of the bird pics are from K from another day.

The food T the K's home as I have said was gorgeous and the Dal-Gosht that K made on Sunday was something I have never had before. Goat meat cooked with chana dal to a softness that is downright sinful, it is a beautiful dish. K said he had followed the recipe from this youtube video. I watched the video and it was pretty simple to follow.

However we do not eat a lot of meat at our home and so I wasn't going to try out this recipe for a while. But it was so good that I thought some of you might be interested.

I therefore decided to post the recipe, roughly as K said which actually religiously follows the You Tube video except for the amount of Oil.
Since K's goat meat had fatty pieces he let it cook in its own fat instead of adding too much oil. At least that is what he told me.

Wash and clean about 1.7-2lb(approx one and quarter kg) of goat meat.

Soak 1/2 Cup of Chana Dal in hot water for 2 hour

In a pressure cookeradd
goat meat1 cup warm water 2 tomatoes roughly chopped1 cups of onion chopped in large chunks6-8 fat cloves of garlic (half a head of garlic roughly)1 tsp of Red Chili Powder1 tsp of Cumin Powder1/2 tsp of Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp of Turmeric PowderSalt
Cook the meat for about 4-5 minutes at full pressure.

While the meat is cooking in a mortar ground1 tsp whole black pepper1"of whole peeled ginger

Also heat about 3 tbsp of oil and fry 1/2 cup of thinly sliced onion

Once the meat is done open the lid
addthe chana dalabout 2 cups of warm water the ground paste
Close lid and cook for 2 more minutes.
Don't cook too much else the dal will be mushed. Check to see the meat should be cooked by now.

Now do the tadka by adding to above the fried onion and the oil. Mix and let it cook for a couple more minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves

Sandeepa, I have heard a sparrow's nest is a sign that brings prosperity to the house perhaps explains your grandmother's reluctance to remove their nests. I have a neighbor who has bird feeders and her yard attracts all kinds of birds. Very soothing to look at.

If I was not into blogs I would never have believed that dal and goat meat can be cooked with dal.

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Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine